Here you go. As I said yesterday, the government’s response to the petition for holding a 2nd referendum is not a closing argument – as the likes of the BBC claimed.
The petition – which has more than 4.1 million signatures – will be debated in Parliament on 5 September 2016.
I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will prevent/deter Theresa May from invoking Article 50 before then, and that further negative economic events will occur to bolster the argument against this idiotic decision to leave the EU. The full text of the confirmation email reads:
Dear xxxxxxx
You recently signed the petition “EU Referendum Rules triggering a 2nd EU Referendum”:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/131215The Petitions Committee has decided to schedule a House of Commons debate on this petition. The debate will take place on 5 September at 4.30pm in Westminster Hall, the second debating chamber of the House of Commons. The debate will be opened by Ian Blackford MP.
The Committee has decided that the huge number of people signing this petition means that it should be debated by MPs. The Petitions Committee would like to make clear that, in scheduling this debate, they are not supporting the call for a second referendum. The debate will allow MPs to put forward a range of views on behalf of their constituents. At the end of the debate, a Government Minister will respond to the points raised.
A debate in Westminster Hall does not have the power to change the law, and won’t end with the House of Commons deciding whether or not to have a second referendum. Moreover, the petition – which was opened on 25 May, well before the referendum – calls for the referendum rules to be changed. It is now too late for the rules to be changed retrospectively. It will be up to the Government to decide whether it wants to start the process of agreeing a new law for a second referendum.
The Petitions Committee is a cross-party group of MPs. It is independent from Government. You can find out more about the Committee on its website: http://www.parliament.uk/petitions-committee/role
Thanks,
The Petitions team
UK Government and Parliament
Let’s all pray that somehow – somewhere along this road – common sense will prevail and the government will reverse the decision made by halfwits who shouldn’t be allowed to vote on Big Brother evictions, let alone on something as important as this.